The LuLac Edition #913, Aug. 20th, 2009

SNAPPLE "REAL FACT" #114, the oldest known animal was a tortosise which lived to be 152 years old.

PHOTO INDEX: OUR HEALTH CARE REFORM LOGO.

THE LULAC CHALLENGE

I am really getting sick and tired of the misinformation being bandied about by the opponents of Health Care Reform. The other day I actually heard someone on the radio say that there were people out there who were abusing the health care system for their own amusement. Yes, he said amusement. He said that people make up symptoms and go to the doctor and emergency room just because they take great delight in ripping off the medical system. He cited senior citizens who have no social life and go from doctor to doctor because they are lonely. He then talked about mothers who brought their kids into the emergency room for any little reason. He talked about patients who went from care giver to care giver because they loved the attention taking medical tests gave them. What an idiot!
Let’s talk common sense here. You are a senior citizen. You have medical care in case something goes wrong. With all of the social options open to seniors today, you think they want to make a sport of going to the doctors?
You are a young mother. It’s a beautiful sunny day and your child is playing in the yard, park or at a beach. The child cuts him or herself on something and the bleeding is pretty bad. Yeah, you woke up that morning and decided, “How am I going to screw over the American health care system today?”
Last week I went for a Catscan. It was ordered by my doctor to make sure the cancer I was diagnosed with last summer is at bay. The night before and the morning of I needed to drink a “contrast” drink for the test. It tasted like burnt chalk. I began my day at 9AM going to the Oncology Center to have them access my port. (I have horrible veins). I then went to the Saxton Pavilion and had two people put me in a machine, injecting three types of dye in me that flushed my face. They contorted my body and told me to hold my breath. After the test, I had to go back to the Oncology Center and have the port de-accessed. When I was through it was 12:30PM. Now, don’t get me wrong, I am grateful to be alive, thankful for the wonderful people who administered the test and glad that things seemed pretty good. (I wish the $225.00 co-pay, I’ll have 4 of them this year at that rate were tax deductible but you can’t have everything). But does this radio host actually think I had fun? Does he think that maybe I might have had something better to do with my time? Believe me, I can do a lot in three hours. And after I was finished, I didn’t have the desire to do it again until I have to. Trivializing people and marginalizing them in this health care debate is really stupid and is going to backfire. These conservative right wingers who “have theirs” have no sense of decency and conscience. And the sad part is that they are looked up to by not very smart citizens who parrot their views as their own. And unfortunately, this area is the worst when it comes to the term “my un”. Ever hear someone use that colloquialism in place of the word “mine”? “Don’t you touch that fence, it's “my un”. That parking space is “my un”. “I got “my un”, now you get yours!” Hey, Valley with a Heart, why not worry about your neighbor once in a while!
Anyway, here’s the LuLac Health Care Challenge. Bring to me a person who actually loves going to the doctor or hospital for sport, who gets off wasting the time of health care professionals, who will give up a beautiful summer day outside to sit in a waiting room somewhere for care! I have yet in my 5 decades of life met anyone like that. Bring one to me and I’ll give them a reward right here on the spot. Prove to me that they exist. They don’t. Like so many lies and distortions in this health care debate, this is still another in a long line of lies and untruths being told.

GUNS AND RALLIES

I’m also sick and tired of hearing how the left protested the Iraq War with people like Cindy Sheehan. When people protested against the Iraq War, they were put in protest zones and areas blocks away from the President. (Maybe they felt the protesters would impede Mr. Bush’s search for Weapons of Mass Destruction!) Another big difference is that anti war protestors never carried side arms or fire arms strapped to their thighs. Health care protestors did exactly that. Maybe their health plan didn’t give them enough Viagra!

$PENDING, $PENDING

I am sick and tired of hearing how much money the health care reform will cost. It’ll bankrupt our future. NEWSFLASH: We have been bankrupted and the pigs on Wall Street did that already. And speaking of spending, where were you when the previous administration was spending 30 billion a month on a war that essentially was assassinating our troops with road side bombs? Good enough to go into debt for that but not enough to provide health care?

THE LAST RESORT

The last resort of a coward with little or no information is to refer to someone as a Nazi or invoke the name Hitler. Both are highly charged words that bring up connotations of fear and loathing. At a town hall meeting, take a look at what this piece of human trash masquerading as an American said to the Congressman Barney Frank; and check out how he responded.


SCREW THE BLUE DOGS

Who won the last election exactly? I understand it was the Democratic Party. Who controls the House and Senate? Uh, the Democrats. It is time for the White House to go it alone on health care. No more bi partisanship, no more kissing the asses of the Republicans. No matter what you do in this health care debate, the Republican Party will run against you. That’s what they do. Your Blue Dogs are nothing but a bunch of people interested in straddling the middle. They’ll tell you they want to study the issue, to take more time and get it right. You are the party of Franklin Roosevelt (Social Security), Hubert Humphrey (Civil Rights) John Kennedy (The Space Program) Lyndon Johnson (Equal Housing Act of 1965) and Harry Truman (Integration of the Military). All these men were engineers of social change. This is your chance to stand with those men whose actions have become indispensable to our every day life. Or will you be the legislators of non consequence preserving the mediocrity and anonymity you so richly deserve? By my calculations the Health Care Legislation can pass in the House. There are currently 256 members of the Democratic party. There are 178 Republican members. They tell me there are 50 blue dog House Members. But let’s say there are 25 more in this pathetic little organization of cowards. The Legislation can pass 181-178. In the Senate, they can get 55 votes, maybe less. My question is this: what are we waiting for? The New England Patriots won three Super Bowls. In each game they won it by just 3 points. No one remembers the margin of victory, but what they do remember is that they had enough on those three days to win. When that unemployed worker is getting affordable health care, when that poor child is getting early care, when premiums become competitive, no one is going to give a shit if the legislation was enacted on a bi partisan basis. No one will ask because no one will care. Just pass it. 57% of people want a government option, I don't think they care how you get there, they just want you to do what you promised. Losing the Blue Dogs might mean that maybe your party is finally standing for something.

ONE TERM AND DONE

I was a Hillary Clinton supporter. My friend Gort and other bloggers said this guy (Obama) was different. A former state Democratic committee person and political wise man Bob Caruso told me Obama would be the epitome of change. I was won over when Obama said he was willing to be a one term President if he enacted fundamental change. Let’s see it happen. Let's see him take a risk.

GO BIG…OR GO HOME

Thomas Jefferson said, “One man with courage is a majority.” Mr. Obama, you have more than one person in the Congress on your side, GO BIG OR GO BACK TO ILLINOIS.